Under the Southern cross in South America . gained. We passed Cacray and Chicla, almost 13,000 feet above Lima;the fields and the cultivation again disappeared and the region re-minded me somewhat of the country along the Yellowstone. Cara-vans of burros and llamas were passed carrying silver and copperore to the smelting works at Casapalca, the chimneys of whosesmelters soon came into view, standing up like silhouetted ghostsagainst the clear blue of the Andean sky. These great smelters ofCasapalca were built by three Americans, Messrs. Backus & John-son, capitalists of Lima, and Captain H. G
Under the Southern cross in South America . gained. We passed Cacray and Chicla, almost 13,000 feet above Lima;the fields and the cultivation again disappeared and the region re-minded me somewhat of the country along the Yellowstone. Cara-vans of burros and llamas were passed carrying silver and copperore to the smelting works at Casapalca, the chimneys of whosesmelters soon came into view, standing up like silhouetted ghostsagainst the clear blue of the Andean sky. These great smelters ofCasapalca were built by three Americans, Messrs. Backus & John-son, capitalists of Lima, and Captain H. Geyer, an American miningengineer. Great quantities of ore are brought here from the minesof Cerro de Pasco, which pre about seventy miles distant. Llamasare generally used for transportation. Sometimes you can see asmany as a hundred in a caravan. At Casapalca we saw severalhundreds of the animals in a mudwall corral, where they had beendriven after depositing their burdens. Beyond Casapalca peaks of rock came into view which seemed as. ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD 151 if in some ancient time they had Ijeen smoothed by glacial of snow were lying in the shadows, and the air was so coldthat we were glad enough to wrap our robes and boas and ponchostightly around our bodies to keep out the penetrating we were at the Galera, the culminating point of the Oroya andthe very top of the cold, windswept Andean roof. The sensationof standing on the top of the Andes was certainly one worth ex-periencing, and one which certainly compensated us for the hazard-ous journey up the Oro_va. We were a thousand feet higher thanPikes Peak, in fact higher than any mountain in the United .States,with the exception of Mount McKinley in Alaska. Standing thereon the very roof of the world, as it were, and gazing on the stupen-dous work of nature, those colossal mountain tops piercing theheavens with their snow-clad peaks, we realized Itow small, howweak and puny and insignificant
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